I just read the report from Institute of the Black World’s Haiti Support Project Visit (January 15-19, 2014) and wow is it full of good stories and information. Check it out to learn about the past, present, and future of the world’s First Black Republic. There are lots of great photos and videos.

The move to close prisons in New York has come alongside the push to expand county jails across the state. Within this statewide shift, Tompkins has been one of few counties actively resisting their local jail expansion.

In our attempt to understand what exactly is going on in our state, we will work with Jack Norton, a geographer who studies prison closures in Upstate New York. Learning about the history and geography of mass incarceration in New York will help us better understand our current struggle. Join us in work-shopping abolitionist organizing in Ithaca as we brainstorm messaging for our campaign to stop the Tompkins County Jail expansion, effective tactics, and next steps.

Local artist, Annemarie Zwack, has been commissioned to design a visually integrated collection of public art pieces that will serve as the backbone of the Southside Loop of the MLK Freedom Walkway: a physical trail celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. King, in the context of Ithaca’s African American history. The walkway traces local events and people whose efforts mirror the national struggle for civil rights and social justice. Two loops of the walkway are ultimately planned, the first, the South Loop, will be located on the block of Cleveland Avenue between South Plain and South Corn Streets.

Come share your vision for this community asset! The concepts contributed by the community in this brainstorming session will inform the final design of the project.

The Rhetoric of Criminality: Mass Incarceration and the Marginalization of People of Color.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014
6:00-8:00 pm
Uris Hall G01
Free and open to the public
Sponsored by the GPSAFC

As of 2013, there are approximately 2 million prisoners in the US today, constituting nearly a quarter of the worldwide prison population. Of these 2 million, a disconcerting proportion of inmates are minorities and persons of color. Why is it that one in three African American men in their twenties are incarcerated on any given day? How has the war on terror affected Arab and Muslim communities in the US? Have the new immigration laws led to an upswing in incarcerated immigrants? This student-run teach-in will not only address all these questions, but will also explore how the US government, private corporations and the justice system perpetuate and benefit from the mass incarceration of people of color.

Awhile back we got a smart phone for the first time, and I downloaded a game based on the cuteness of its icon. It turned out to be Triple Town, and I got briefly obsessed, even finding it on Facebook when I ran out of credits or points or whatever it is they give you until you have to start paying money to keep playing.

It’s an addictive puzzle game, which is what I found appealing about it. You combine icons to make higher-value icons. But these icons tell a story. They’re not just little jewels or tiles or something. Triple Town is set on land, populated by bears. You combine grass until you have flowers, and you combine those until you have bushes, and those in turn become trees, which then become buildings, and then churches and cathedrals. Along the way you trap the bears, turning them into tombstones. Enough tombstones and you’ve got a church. You encounter “ninja bears” who can move around more freely and block your moves, and you kill them, to turn them into tombstones, too. At some point the game tells you you’ve been working on colonies; there’s a mainland which sends out ships to them to get their resources to bring back to the “Capital City,” where they can be used to build monuments, armaments, and coin-making farms and factories to fund further exploitation of the islands.

So not only was I a bear-killer, I was an imperialist. I got deeply uncomfortable and after a while it wasn’t even my “guilty pleasure” anymore, it was just an addictive thing I felt creepy about. So I stopped playing.

In the back of my mind I wondered about Triple Town. I imagine a lot of people don’t have issues with killing tiny animated bears and stealing their resources; the game is very popular. Were the game producers just idiots, unaware of what they were teaching people? Or were they deliberately brainwashing folks? Continue reading Oppression in Games: What are we learning?→

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A Brief History of the saree blouse and Indian fashion before 1960 with an occasional excursion after. All images are credited but if they are here by accident please do let me know and I will take it down. All posts also on vintageindianclothing.tumblr.com